Here's last time, on we go.
The heroes have learned that Nightingale is stuck in the Place Between, but they aren't sure how to find that. Pyre checks the coordinates of the places that she's tried to contact Moonlight to establish a point of reference, while Jade Eagle calls Casey. She tells him what they're up to, and he warns her to be careful - last time they went dimension hopping, they brought back a Photovore invasion. She acknowledges this, and they board the ship and vanish.
They appear after a journey that, to Pyre's mind, only took about half as long as he'd have thought. But FLICKER, his ship's AI, confirms that they're in the Place Between and that atmospheric conditions are favorable to human life. They disembark the ship and look around - this place is weird. It's composed of hallways, archways, doorways, and such, and they always seem to be standing just on the horizon. It's temperate - not hot or cold - and dimly lit. Pyre flies up to try and get a bird's-eye view, but when he does, the whole world adjusts. They all feel the world lurch, and Jade Eagle comes to the conclusion that she really hates it here. She thinks, perhaps, that Casey was right - this is too far out of her wheelhouse. Pyre, meanwhile, feels like this isn't too dissimilar to some other world he's seen. Moonlight feels like this is one more weirdness in the weird parade that is his life.
The heroes try to figure out how to find Nightingale. Jade Eagle listens carefully for birdsong, but there are no quiet sounds, or loud sounds, just sounds. Moonlight reconfigures his vocal apparatus to make the sounds himself, and then hears and answering call. They all follow the sound, and soon come upon Nightingale, sitting on a bench, waiting for them.
She and Moonlight reunite ("Aunt Lily!"), and they tell her they've come to take her home. She refuses, though - she's here to try and avoid Charlie's doom. Moonlight and Sol are destined, supposedly, to destroy each other and then become something new, but Nightingale feels that they don't need to accept this. Moonlight tells her that this is fate, and it's not something they should mess with, but Nightingale says that he's 16 and what does he know about "the way things are?" Moonlight shuts her down - he knows what his fate is, and she doesn't get to decide it.
Pyre tries to call up FLICKER, but she tells him that she isn't able to get a fix on him and her programming has been overriden. They head back to the ship, but find it's been overgrown with tendrils of black glass. Pyre changes his fist to rock to punch through it, but the glass shatters and then reforms. Pyre gets in the ship and talks to FLICKER, who tells him that something is preventing her from shifting the ship out of phase, and that there are two other sentient beings around.
Meanwhile, outside, the others note that it's getting warmer, to the point that Nightingale is sweating. This shouldn't be happening, of course, it never gets "warm" here. And then they see a humanoid figure, burning so brightly they can't quite make it out, appear - Sol.
Sol says that she's here to embrace her fate with Moonlight, and throws a whole bunch of fire at him. Moonlight puts up a shield, but the fire burns through it, and he yells for someone to help him. Pyre emerges from the ship and blasts water at Sol, but it just evaporates.
Jade Eagle yells to Sol to think of her mother, and that confuses her for a minute. Moonlight tells her to calm down, and how did she get here, anyway? Sol tries to burn brighter, but Moonlight siphons off some of her energy and anger, and she lands, calling out to someone for help. She tries, but can't quite seem to catch fire again.
She tells Moonlight that their destiny has been explained to her, that the two of them can die gloriously and something new can be born, something beautiful. Moonlight says that he's in no hurry for that to happen, and anyway, how did Sol learn about all this? Sol says that she made a deal, and Moonlight confirms that it was with the mysterious woman in blue. At this point, the characters look around and notice that Nightingale has gone missing.
A moment later, Ghostheart steps from the shadows, and tells them all to stop testing the boundaries. This place, the Place Between, is the boundary between Life and Death (among other things), and by changing things they're damaging that barrier. He snaps his fingers and returns Nightingale (who says she was in some formless black void, but isn't sure how she got there), and tells them to get gone. Nightingale refuses - she still wants to save Charlie, and she's been here too long to leave now. She says she's made some progress, but it's been incremental - this place doesn't take kindly to sudden change.
The woman in blue is mentioned again, and Nightingale identifies her - Lady Faust. Pyre asks who Lady Faust is, and she responds "me" as she steps out of nothing. She reveals that she brought Sol here and changed the rules of the place so that she and Moonlight could realize their destiny. Ghostheart demands she leave, but she simply waves a hand and turns him to stone.
Moonlight talks with Sol, trying to suss out exactly what she agreed to, and Jade Eagle sidles over to Pyre and tells him to change Ghostheart back - she can sense his mind in the statue somewhere, so he just needs a little nudge. Pyre does, and Ghostheart reappears. "You want to ignore the rules, Faust? Fine," he says, and grows to a hundred feet tall. He swings his hand down and strikes them all. Jade Eagle swoops up her team, Sol, and Nightingale to protect them, but Pyre, trying to protect himself by turning to metal, panics.
Moonlight comes to in a strange world. It's an immense cemetery, but every grave is open with a staircase leading down. He sees his team (plus Sol and Nightingale), all as metal statues, including himself. He looks at his hands and realizes he's just a spectre made of moonlight. If he could revive Pyre, Pyre could probably change them back, he thinks.
He sees Lady Faust, and she sees him. She walks through the cemetery like a kid in a candy store, and when he speaks to her, she says they're in the Dead. She tells him that she'd be happy to change the others back, but Moonlight is in no mood to make a deal with her. He floats back to the statues and coaxes Pyre's mind back, whereupon he stretches and becomes flesh again. He changes everyone back, but Sol looks kind of worse for the wear. Moonlight realizes that this is probably because she is an embodiment of light, life, and fire, and there is nothing like that here in the Dead.
Jade Eagle asks if they are dead, and Nightingale points out her own grave behind her, except that the "death" date is missing and there's no staircase. So they're all still alive, but stuck here. Pyre's ship isn't here and FLICKER isn't answering. Jade Eagle tells Sol and Moonlight to try and figure this out, and Moonlight figures that he's strong enough to just lift them out...but then they hear a scream.
They follow it, and see Lady Faust walking up out of a grave. Her lips are full and red, and the blood-colored stone around her neck is glowing. They realize that she probably just consumed someone's soul, and tell her she needs to stop, but she refuses, and asks what exactly they're going to do about it?
Next time, we'll see what they can do about it.
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